Stratagem
'' |image= |series= |production=40358-066/314 |producer(s)= |story= Terry Matalas |script= Mike Sussman |director= Mike Vejar |imdbref=tt0572243 |guests= Randy Oglesby as Degra, Josh Drennen as Thalen and Douglas Bierman as Degra's Assistant |previous_production=Proving Ground |next_production=Harbinger |episode=ENT S03E14 |airdate=4 February2004 |previous_release=Proving Ground |next_release=Harbinger |story_date(s)= 12 December 2153 |previous_story=Proving Ground |next_story=Harbinger }} =Summary= Three years in the future - Captain Archer and Degra (the scientist behind the Xindi weapon project) are aboard a shuttle, escaping from an Insectoid prison camp. Degra, however, cannot remember his time as Archer's cell-mate and friend, and remains suspicious despite having a prison tattoo and long greying hair. Archer convinces him that this is due to the blood worms in his system (used because they excrete a truth drug, but sometimes causes the victim to suffer amnesia afterwards), and removes a worm from Degra's arm. It soon unfolds that they are in fact inside a simulator aboard Enterprise (and still in December, 2153) and the whole set up is a ploy to learn where the weapon is being constructed. Degra and his crew, for example, had been captured near the test site of the weapon, the worm was inserted by Doctor Phlox, and the fake ship was constructed by the crew. The ruse is partially successful, and Degra reveals information about his family, and inputs coordinates into the navigation system. He later becomes suspicious after a malfunction in which one of the windows of the simulator briefly glitches due to ship-wide power fluctuations, and attacks Archer. This leaves Archer with a dilemma; travelling to the red giant star, Azati Prime, would take them three weeks, time they do not have to waste on a wild goose chase. Instead they again deceive Degra into thinking that they have utilized Xindi warp technology to open subspace vortices, and trick him into thinking that they have already arrived at the coordinates. Degra shouts that they will never be able to breach the base's defenses, thus proving that the coordinates do in fact relate to the weapon. The crew then carry out a third deception, with the mind-wiped Degra and his crew being placed back on their ship. =Errors and Explanations= Nit Central # The Undesirable Element on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 8:54 pm: I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that Degra could have seen the shuttle bay if he were to look out of the window at an extreme angle. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:11 am: How? Weren’t the exterior shots of the stars projected onto the window screens like computer viewers? The Undesirable Element on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:34 pm: When we first get an exterior view of the simulator, we see a window on the shuttle and a computer screen a bit away from the shuttle window. The screen is not very large. I'd need to look at the scene again to be certain, but it just looked like if Degra got to the edge of the window and looked really hard to the opposite side, he might see the shuttle bay. # Speaking of the aforementioned window, why is it there? There's no front window. Is it that far out of the realm of possibility for there to be no windows on a spaceship? (Of course with no windows, Degra wouldn't have seen the glitch and the show would have been different.) Josh M on Friday, November 05, 2004 - 1:59 am: Plus, it adds to the charade if Degra can see that they're at warp. # Archer missed several opportunities during the strategem to ask Degra about the mysterious informant. Why not take this opportunity to give Degra the truth about humans. This whole conflict arose from a misunderstanding on the part of the Xindi. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:11 am: No, it arose from the Xindi learning that Earth would be responsible for their destruction in the future, which may or may not be true, and is therefore, not a misunderstanding. As for Archer asking Degra about the Xindi’s informant, he had to be cautious about which information to probe for, and how to go about doing it, lest Degra become suspicious. The Undesirable Element on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:34 pm: But clearly someone's manipulating something here. Why not simply sit Degra down and explain that Earth had no hostile intentions toward the Xindi prior to their attack on Earth. Why not try to work out a peaceful solution? The Xindi clearly think that they can prevent this destruction of their home planet, but why can't they prevent it using treaties and alliances instead of genocide? SeniramUK 11:55, November 20, 2018 (UTC) 1) It’s very likely that, due to the propaganda spread by the Sphere Builders, Degra wouldn't believe Earth’s lack of hostile intentions toward the Xindi, especially prior to their attack on Earth. 2) Treaties need a lot of negotiation, and can still be broken. # Archer's final trick for Degra was inspired. At first I thought they were trying to trick the engineer into giving them the secret for vortex travel. Then it hit me like a brick. It was brilliant for Archer to think that up. He's getting major strategy points this week and last week. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:11 am: I wasn’t fooled by it for a second, and neither should Degra have been. The Undesirable Element on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:34 pm: I believe Degra's situation resulted in his blunder. Everything happened very quickly. I'm sure if Degra had some time to give the situation a bit of thought, he would not have fallen for Archer's ruse. Archer's plot, however, hinged on an emotional outburst from Degra. Hence, Archer concocted a very fast-pased and confusing scenario. Then he made it appear that the Enterprise (the ship of the dreaded humans) arrived at Azati Prime. His nerves have to be shot. His situation is a bit more stressful than you or me sitting on our couches watching the action. # Why does Archer return Degra and his crew to their ship? Why not keep them on board in the brig? Dan Gunther on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 9:09 pm: My impression was that the crew wanted to keep the Xindi under the belief that nothing was amiss. If the person in charge of the construction of the weapon goes missing, the Xindi will suspect that their security has been breached, and it's entirely possible that the location of the weapon will change, or some other alteration to the plan that will throw the Enterprise off the trail. Josh M on Friday, November 05, 2004 - 1:59 am: Why give the Xindi any evidence that they're any closer to the weapon? # Sparrow47 on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 9:22 pm: Just why were Degra and co. nosing around the debris field in the first place? What could they have gained? "Well, there's a lot of radiation about, and our prototype's still missing." Given how anxious the other Xindi were about finishing the weapon, why is he making this detour? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:11 am: A detour from what? He’s probably studying the debris field to figure out the cause of the test’s failure. He orders sensor drones deployed before the Enterprise shows up and captures them. # Last episode, people seemed to take issue with the fact that Shran used the term "Archerite," arguing that it would tip off Degra to Archer's presence. Here, he seemed to me like he didn't immediately connect Archer's name with being captain of the Enterprise. So, does he know Archer or doesn't he? After what Archer and the crew have done to him, his memory is bound to be a little fragmented! # Um... why was there a knife on the shuttle to begin with? Darth Sarcasm on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 11:07 am: So Archer could get the bloodworm out. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 9:34 pm: Putting aside the question of whether that’s necessary for Archer to do to complete the ruse (or for that matter, whether it’s really necessary to have a bloodworm inside Degra—they could just tell him that they’re really small and unnoticeable), they didn’t have to include such a large knife for that task. They could’ve included a small, scalpel-like tool or pointed tool for simply making a puncture wound, which Degra might still have used against him, but which wouldn’t present as big a threat as a large one used primarily as a weapon. Kazeite on Saturday, February 07, 2004 - 7:25 am: Why is the knife onboard the "ship"? Part of the survival kit. LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, February 07, 2004 - 7:54 am: They should not have included it.Kazeite on Saturday, February 07, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Considering that they had a freaking plasma torch (or whatever this was), I think that knife size and its presence is irrevelant :) # ScottN on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 11:43 pm: What did they do in Engineering? What did they do when they got to the base? Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 1:05 am: They didn't get to the base. Using the Xindi methods of travel was a ruse to confirm if Azati Prime was the base or not. They never left the testing area. Then they erased the Xindi's memories and made it look as if the Xindi vessel had suffered some sort of accident so the Xindi wouldn't know that Enterprise had been there. # Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 1:05 am: If the Xindi ship won't leave the vortex for 6 hours why head back to the radiation field immediately? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:11 am: Where was this? KAM on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:42 am: In the episode. ;-) I'm not sure when but someone says that they've detected a ship in one of those vortices, but it won't come out for 6 hours, Hoshi mentions that their sensors might detect Enterprise (I assume once they've left the vortice) & T'Pol orders them back into the debris field because the radiation will hide them. IIRC. # At the end Enterprise using the Xindi vortexes was just a ruse, but didn't Archer give orders to take Enterprise into a vortex when he was alone with his crew? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:11 am: He asked Trip if he learned about how they open the vortices, and after Trip says they use some kind of phased deflector pulses, Archer says he wants to see all the data he’s collected. KAM on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 2:42 am: Okay, then. I couldn't remember just what happened & didn't have it on tape. # If Degra wasn't around then why would Archer keep up the act if Degra or one of the other Xindi was not an audience? Archer is doing what many actors do - staying in character during breaks in performing, to ensure the consistency of the performance. # LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 1:25 am: After capturing Degra in Act 2, Archer decides to have Phlox erase his memory engrams of the last few days. Does this mean that that sophisticated shuttle simulation, and everything else about the ruse, was cobbled together, including the application of the Malosian language in its interfaces, and Archer’s mastery of it, in only three days? How’d they do this so fast? Josh M on Friday, November 05, 2004 - 1:59 am: Future technology? ''SeniramUK 11:55, November 20, 2018 (UTC)''The initial prep work could have been done earlier, on the off chance that Enterprise could capture a Xindi engineer who had worked on the weapon. # Phlox tells Archer in Act 2 synthesizing the correct formula for a truth serum to use on Degra might take weeks, but fortunately, the neural pathways of Xindi Primates, which need to be well-charted in order to erase Degra’s short-term memory, are virtually identical to those of Xindi Reptilian. Josh M on Friday, November 05, 2004 - 1:59 am: They are a very biologically close species. # Reluctant to give Archer the coordinates of the location of the Xindi weapon, Archer lets Degra enter in the coordinates in the navigational computer himself, and finds afterwards that Degra encrypted the coordinates in the navigational controls. First, it certainly is convenient that Degra apparently knowing how to operate a Malosian computer console, possibly one configured to English, which he’d have to do in order to encrypt information that he enters into it. Second, in order for encryption to work, wouldn’t the computer have to be familiar with the language in which the information is entered? If it is, then encrypting it is useless, because Archer can simply have the computer translate the information. Not if Degra uses a difficult to guess encryption code. # Why does Archer feel he has to put Degra and his men back in their ship and cover up what happened? Why not keep him around in case they need more information down the line, or even kill them? Wouldn’t doing so, and eliminating the weapon’s main designer and man in charge of its development pose a significant blow to its progress? No – the Xindi are likely suspicious enough to have back up staff. # In putting Degra and his men back into their ship and eliminating their memories of the last several days at the end of the episode, Phlox injects them with trace amounts of plasma to complete the appearance of a plasma conduit rupture, injecting one of them in the neck, and saying it won’t harm them. Plasma is superheated ionized gas, right? How can it not harm them? The same way you can’t be poisoned by the minute traces of cyanide in apple pips! # LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 1:50 am: What was the reason for the second ruse? The crew already had the location of Red Giant, so what did they have to fool Degra again for? If what Degra was saying in the brig in Act 4 was true, and that was just the location of an Insectoid dilithium facility, then they had nothing to fear. They would have something to fear if it was the location of the Xindi weapon, and if it had the formidable defense perimeter Degra revealed it had at the end of the episode, so what did they gain by merely having Degra reveal it was the actual location? Okay, Archer said before implementing the ruse that they couldn’t afford to lose three weeks if the weapon wasn’t there, but why? What does Archer have to lose? He has no other leads or contacts, right? Was there somewhere else he had to go? T’Pol did tell him during the first ruse in Act 3 that it would be a considerable detour if the weapon wasn’t there, but a detour from what? Does Archer just have a fetish for playacting, or something? Josh M on Friday, November 05, 2004 - 1:59 am: Why not get a sure confirmation? # LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 9:34 pm: This episode establishes that the MACO’s have subdermal tranceivers to allow them to communicate clandestinely, which Phlox says are relatively easy to implant. Wouldn’t this have been useful in any one of the numerous episodes where Archer or other members of the crew were captured, or missing, like Detained, Desert Crossing, Shuttlepod One, or Two Days and Two Nights? Shouldn’t it be standard for all crewmen for all away missions and shore leaves? They may not have been available until the Xindi search mission. # After Degra inputs the coordinates of Azati Prime in the simulator, the simulator’s hydraulic system begins to malfunction, causing it to shake and shimmy. Why would radiation affect hydraulics? Doesn’t hydraulics simply use fluids like water to mechanically operate the pumps? inblackestnight on Wednesday, June 03, 2009 - 12:01 pm: Yes but the computers are operating the pumps, which is what the radiation is effecting. Why the hydraulics don't simply shut down when that starts I don't know.SeniramUK 11:55, November 20, 2018 (UTC) Manual backup controls? # Also, when Trip tells this to T’Pol, she contacts the bridge to order Travis to leave the debris field. Why are they conducting the ruse on Degra (which takes place over a course of a few days, mind you) in the debris field? Since Degra was captured, doesn’t it stand to reason that others might go there to look for him? Once they captured Degra, why didn’t they high-tail it out of there? inblackestnight on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 1:13 pm: Probably because of Degra's ship. They didn't want to leave it there and have somebody discover they were gone if Archer was planning on putting them back. Plus, I'm sure they wanted to scan the hell out of it to get any intel they could. ' # ''Merat on Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 8:30 pm: Considering how advanced the Xindi ships are, I'm a bit surprised that Archer didn't send it back to Earth with a prize crew aboard. I understand the need to keep the fact that they have questioned Degra a secret, but couldn't they have done something like fake debris in the remains of that moon? ''Sparrow47 on Friday, February 13, 2004 - 7:13 am:'' Maybe if they had more time, but it would probably take them a while to generate faux debris.' # ''Torque, Son of Keplar on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 7:38 pm: When Enterprise detaches from Degra's ship, how does the docking port of Degra's ship know to go back in? This nit can actually be applied to many episodes where docking occurs on an irregular shaped surface when the other ship doesn't extend its docking port. This could be an automatic part of the docking and undocking procedure. Category:EpisodesCategory:Enterprise